Vito Paternoster, 

a leading figure in conducting, concerting operas, philological performing, cello playing and composing was born on Christmas day 1957. He began studying cello in Bari, at the Conservatory of Music “Piccinni”. His Headmaster, Nino Rota, understood his precocious talent and encouraged his debut when he was only 15 years old. Thanks to Rota, he first performed in very prestigious halls: Piccola Scala in Milan, Levi Foundation in Venice, with the Rome Orchestra “I Concerti dell’Arcadia” conducted by Riccardo Chailly.

Amedeo Baldovino, to whom Rota admitted him, became his guide until the Diploma which he obtained at the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Rome with the highest grade. He also studied composition with Francesco D’Avalos and conducting with Franco Ferrara.

Cellist

At the age of 20 he became the first cellist of the Rai Orchestra in Rome and he entered the prestigious group I Musici. He still performs with as a soloist in the most important theatres all over the world. His natural musicality and his stylistic precision have been appreciated in Vienna, London, Paris, New York, Tokyo, Prague since the Eighties. Many famous artists choose him as a partner for recordings and concerts: one of his most successful records is Heinz Holliger playing string quartets. Then, he was 21 and the record is still included into Denon catalogue. His repertoire runs over three centuries of music; so is his awarded discography (Philips Classics, Bongiovanni, Dynamic, Nuova Era, Denon). During his twenty-year-old career as a cellist he has been reviewed many times, such as: “An extraordinary sensible artist” (Rude Pravo, Prague 1980); “And so magically, he made prestidigitation tricks altering voice to half voice” (The Times, London, 1986); “It was the bright ray” (Frankfurter Rundschau, 1987); “The most surprising” (Die Presse, Vienna 1987); “flashing impact … warm and intense sound” (Musicalia, 1996); “Vito Paternoster’s concert, a true lesson of cellist art” (Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, Bari 2000). He recorded for the Roman label “Musicaimmagine” Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas for violin performed on cello from a hand-written document of the 18th century (first world recording and already at the second edition) and Bach’s Six Suites for cello solo. This record has given him fame on the world press.

Composer

Among his compositions there is Inzaffirio, arrived at the sixth discographic edition. In the USA, Los Angeles radio broadcast KRCW – which promoted Kronos Quartet and Gorecki’s symphonies - has broadcasted it daily, during the whole year, electing it the best contemporary production of the year. Vito Paternoster has composed and conducted many other successful works, among which Il Pane dal profano al sacro, a musical journey about the meaning of bread in the southern culture through the centuries. A deep connoisseur of the vocal instrument and repertoire, he has performed with lyrical singers as a pianist or a harpsichordist. He was committed to arrange Verdi’s and Puccini’s music for voices and chamber music and also some popular Italian melodies for tenor and symphonic orchestra. The editions he edited for Ricordi, aiming at a stylistically correct use of the ancient cello repertoire, are known and appreciated all over the world. He has revised some ancient musical documents and has published some essays.

Conductor

He has conducted, among others, the Bari Symphony Orchestra, the Abruzzo Symphony Orchestra, the Betic Symphony Orchestra of Seville, the G. Verdi Orchestra of Salerno, the B. Marcello Orchestra of Teramo, the Gabrieli Ensemble, the Leonardo Leo Orchestra, etc., ranging from Wagner to Mozart, from Bach to Dvorak and Stravinsky with a particular focus on precious unpublished pages of Neapolitan eighteenth-century music (including the sacred action Joseph Recognized by Metastasio/Duni). He has recorded all the concertos by Sammartini for flute and orchestra with the Benedetto Marcello Orchestra of Teramo, soloist Massimo Mercelli (Bongiovanni edition).

A specialist in the philological performance practice, he founded the ancient instrument orchestra La Lyra di Anfione, also conducting it in Spoleto, where he inaugurated the '99 Opera Season of the Teatro Lirico Sperimentale. For this production (Dido and Aeneas by H. Purcell) he received great public acclaim, as well as commendations from the artistic director Michelangelo Zurletti. The specialized critics spoke of an "enchanting performance" and of "a conductor who was clearly not on the podium but inside the music and singing, one with them" (Quirino Principe).

With La Lyra di Anfione, he conducted Bach's Mass in B minor and Pasquale Cafaro's Stabat Mater. He was the conductor and director of La Cecchina or La Buona Figliola by Goldoni/Piccinni in a Bari production co-produced with the Teatro Parenti and the Accademia della Scala of Milan, receiving great appreciation from the audience, critics, and the management of the most important Italian opera theater. The double live CD Bongiovanni of Cecchina, released in 2001, aroused international and unanimous critical interest (Fanfare, CD Classica, Opera, Radiotre, etc.) and was defined as "a benchmark performance for those who will want to tackle it in the future."

In 2001, he conducted "Tosca", and in 2002, he conducted and directed "La Traviata alla specchio" for the official opera season of Teatro Petruzzelli (a show conceived by Maria Grazia Pani, with whom he had already realized "Viva Verdi" and "Vita di Bohème"), receiving great acclaim. He is the animator of a small opera season in Palese Macchie, where he experiments with transcriptions for small formations of famous melodramatic titles (Aida, Rigoletto, Trovatore, Traviata, Cavalleria, Pagliacci, Elisir d'amore, Suor Angelica, Turandot, Bohème, Tosca, Butterfly, Norma, Carmen) using very limited budgets and involving young career artists.